Burn: The Pyro Diaries
by TheRedPyro
Summary: A diary covering the two years before Team Fortress 2, and gives an outsider insight into the game. Mentions items in the game, places and places well in the canon. AND DO NOT EXPECT THIS TO BE GENDER SPECIFIC
1. 1966 Pyro Beginnings

**August, 1966**

I've been sitting here in the field for ages, but that doesn't matter. I was supposed to go and hang out with Laurel and John today, but that doesn't matter. What matters is that the BLU army gets theirs.

I read the news today, about the increasing hostilities between our RED Nation and the BLU Army, and I think we are pretty close to all out war. They say that the BLU army has stolen important state documents and is planning to sabotage many of our installations around the country.

Our prized security and resource depots of Badwater Basin, Hoodoo Mine and Gold Rush Hill are under serious threat and that if the BLU army was to attack that we would be under serious threat.

They have been mobilising for years, building permanent locations at places like Twin Fortress Complex (Known as 2Fort) and the Ulans Peak Hydro Electric Plant not far from my town.

Well, others may shy away from this conflict, but I'll fight them. Whether on the home front or abroad, I'll fight those BLU bastards and lead our RED Nation to glory. I've set my mind on signing up, and I'll get out of this town, go somewhere different and fight. But I'll take my guitar, of course!

**September, 1966**

Last month, after I wrote in my diary, I signed up for the RED army and I am now a helpful Pyrotechnic (they call them Pyros here, so I'll call them that from here on out). They assigned me my gear, and the suit fits well. Apparently the asbestos lining will help withstand my flames from my flamethrower and my gas mask will help me breath. Bit hard to speak with it on, my voice is all muffled.

I'm currently at a training ground, but the word around is that we recruits, that is our small regiment (20 to a regiment, 100 regiments at the training grounds, you do the math) is going to be shipped out to a low risk area, so we "rookies" can begin training our skills in case of a BLU invasion. The area is a factory on the outskirts of a big city, but it is known as "Well" to the rest of us. We are to hold the factory and the centre sheds from BLU infiltration.

I've made friends with some guys, like Pierre and Vladimir. Pierre is French migrant, came here after the World War, and he's a spy. He's a bit shifty, but still an all round nice guy. Vladimir is a funny, big guy with a big heart. He's a heavy weapons guy and is partnered with a medic named Klaus. He's always joking in his broken English and is slightly communist, but only slightly.

But as the tension increases, what was once small scuffles with BLU Army has turned into major conflicts. The Hoodoo Mine was blown up by a payload of explosives a couple of days ago, and today news came in of a RED general killed by a BLU spy, disguised as his advisior. There are spies everywhere, and no one can be trusted.

That's actually one of my jobs, to "Spy-Check" as it is known here. I let a small burst of flame out of my flamethrower and check corners and places for spies. I like being a Pyro.

**October, 1966**

Not long after my last entry, we moved out to the Red Shed Distillery factory in "Well" and began our training excerises. Our instructor, some old soldier with a bazooka, told us about the critical importance of five points in the area. If all the points in Well were captured, Well would be considered captured by both sides and we would be killed or forced to retreat. Sounds like something out of a game to me.

The supposed BLU facility is the Oil Refinery opposite the freight yard, and at night, when I'm on watch, I can see some lights in there, some movement, almost. Benny, one of the scouts, reckons its enemy pyros lighting stuff on fire, but I reckon it's engineers setting up sentry guns.

Meanwhile, the war is escalating, with more and more casualties but with many victories this week. We were able to push the BLU army out of ruined Hoodoo Mines and the Lucky Smells Lumberyard in the mountains. And even abroad, in the Egyptian Tombs, we have claimed the ruins for our selves. But a small loss at the Gold Rush Hill, with the defenders almost completely overwhelmed.

AND THIS IS THE GOOD NEWS! I'm one of three Pyros to be shipped out to a new theatre of war, called Gravelpit by the veterans. The intelligence they stole at the Sawmill in the mountains say that the BLUs will mount an invasion in a month, and will attempt to take over the area. Bless their souls; we'll have the upper hand.

Well, I'm putting my diary away in my suitcase; we ship out in the week.

**November, 1966**

War. War is a dirty affair, and I've seen enough war in this last month to last me a lifetime. Gravelpit was a horrible debacle, and many of us died. The day before, Pierre gave us info that the BLUs had arrived and were mounting an invasion on attempting to capture our control points.

We set up our defense plan, at points A and B in accordance with the General Defense Plan (Control Point Edition), and prepared the sentries and shipped metal out. We welded doors shut that would act as routes for the enemy and fenced off the facility.

They came through the concrete access tunnels, from the back of the base, but our defenses held them for an at least half hour, but then they were able to use their secret weapon, an UberCharge. I heard of it from a spy when we were in boot camp, and how it can make a person invulnerable for some time. The UberCharged Heavy steamrolled through our sentries, and ruined our defenses at Control Point A, I only just made it out.

I dodged the grenades from a Demoman, and I ran down a mine tunnel. It was here I killed my first enemy. A BLU engineer, heading to build a sentry at the newly captured Control Point, caught me as I retreated. He dropped his tool box and reached for his pistol on his belt. I whipped up my flamethrower and pulled the trigger, a burst of tragically beautiful red and yellow bursting out the end. The BLU Engineer burst into flames, screaming and crying, his skin melting.

His hardhat began to drip yellow plastic; his clothes smoldered and melted onto his skin, a byproduct of cheap labor clothes. He kneeled over and fell to the ground, almost dead. I'll write more later the siren just went off, time for battle.

**December, 1966**

It's Christmas Day, and we had a ceasefire for one day. How very nice.

When we woke up, all us REDS gave each other presents. Pierre and Benny (a scout) chipped in and got me a present of a melted hardhat, from my first kill. I hung it over my bed, as a reminder of the first Battle for Gravelpit.

I got Pierre a novelty voice recorder, which he can throw the speaker and speak through the portable mic to throw his voice. He used it today to mess around with Cletus, an Engineer, making him paranoid about spies and sapping.

For Benny I got him a wooden baseball bat, and a matching ball, stolen from BLU army. He's really taken to it, and he's been practicing hitting curveballs from the top of the Control Point C.

I've been given the order to leave Gravelpit, apparently my skill as a Pyrotechnic have been noticed by RED Army and I've been ordered to train up a bunch of Pyro recruits at Ravine. I'd best finish writing this entry; I've got to write up my lesson plan.


	2. 1967 The Long Year

**January, 1967**

Those recruits were complete idiots, if I ever saw them. Cocky, uptight and every one of them wanted to be a bloody hero. All of them thought they would be RED Army's crowning glory and how far did they get? I told them that if they were going to die, to at least throw their body towards the Sentry Gun, and use their mangled bodies to clog the rockets.

They marched straight into hell itself, and instead of being killed by a sentry, were shredded by a Heavy's minigun, bullets ripping into their torso and exploding in blossoms of red and white. Those Pyro's were killed in a matter of seconds and Klaus, our Medic couldn't even save them.

I was able to get out of Ravine, by crawling through a sewer pipe and escaping to a RED outpost a mile away. We lost the battle but in other news, we won the Battle for Gravelpit, and Cletus, Pierre and Benny have been shipped to 2Fort as backup.

I've had enough of battles, I've asked to be relocated back to Well, with my original team. Hopefully, I will.

**February , 1967**

Well it took a month but I'm back at Well. The relative peace of Well, the calm has been disturbed recently, by a spy in our ranks. Everyone is being subjected to very vigorous questioning. It will take a while to question everyone here at the Well/2Fort/Gravelpit Allied Battalion, and they are confiscating my diary. I'll write more later.

**March, 1967**

oh god, my hands. they broke my hands, those damn red interrogaters. im not blu cant they tell. bribed the guard at this place to give me my diary for 5 minutes must stop writing now

**June, 1967**

God, what a horrible two months, we all had to undergo questioning and prove our allegiance to RED Army. I was marked as "Untrustworthy and Dangerous" and I had to prove that I was not a Spy for the BLU Army. I am currently serving a small search and recover mission in Turbine on the outskirts of a big city.

I'm part of a small 4 man squad, sent in to retrive the intelligence and escort it to 2Fort, where it will be hidden. My squad mates are Horace, a demoman from Scotland, Bruce who is our squad sniper and Pierre (I wrote about him before) who is our Spy.

We each have a role to serve in this incredibly important mission. We have to disguise ourselves as BLU soldiers, sneak into the base past the factories and somehow steal their intelligence documents.

Horace killed some scouts when we were sneaking in, through a sewer access pipe 10 miles south of the facility. Pierre split up from us and killed some BLUs to get their uniforms. He got us the uniform of our class, just the BLU version (example, I'm a pyro so he got me a BLU pyro uniform).

It's going to be difficult sneaking in, as we gotta lie and get past. Pierre will be able to sap the sentries on the way out, and if all hell breaks loose, we can attempt to flee out with the documents.

**July, 1967**

What a field day it was, but we did it. We got the intelligence! I'll transcribe it down now. We snuck in under cover of dark, but we were discovered by a BLU patrol on the battlements outside the main Turbine facility. Luckily our disguises held and we went on through to Turbine.

Turbine is a power substation to the larger Ulans Peak Hydro Electric Plant, 122 miles away, and is actually a cover operation for a BLU operation facility. We walked in, and encountered minimal resistance on the way in. Someone tried to talk to me, but as my face was hidden, he presumed I was the original BLU Pyro. I ended up talking with him, but the mask muffled my voice horribly, so he just nodded and pretended to understand. I bid him farewell, but Pierre, Horace and Bruce had continued on without me, so as not to jeopardise the mission. I got lost in Turbine a bit, and while no one was looking, I jumped into a ventilation shaft and ran along it. It was pretty big, I must say.

I came out in the intelligence holding room, but Pierre, Horace and Bruce weren't there. I later found out that they had been escorted by a General to a parade ground where they were having a BLU meeting outside. I saw the intelligence. That blue briefcase, some documents sticking out of it absently. I walked towards it, when I heard a voice behind me.

It was a Heavy asking me what I was doing, and said I looked mighty suspicious. I walked towards, assuring him its okay. I pulled out my fireman's axe, and pulled it down into his chest, with a mighty rip. He fell to the ground, dripping blood from his exposed chest cavity.

I ran over to the Intelligence, picked it up and slung it over my back. A siren went off somewhere in the base, a klaxon of shrieking electronic noise filled the base, and I heard yells of BLU army grunts outside. I ran, leaping over the dead Heavy, and up the stairs. I dived into the ventilation system, and ran through there, my bloody axe in hands.

I was able to avoid the massive amount of troops heading to the intelligence room and met up with Pierre and the gang outside the facility. We had to fight a few patrols on the way out, but we're currently 20 miles south-west of Turbine and we're on the way to 2Fort. RED Army said not to open the briefcase, but I had a quick peek inside. There were a bunch of papers referring to **Operation: Overtime. **

**August, 1967**

We arrived at 2Fort tonight, after the worst month I've suffered in a while. We thought we had escaped the BLUs when we were 40 miles out of Turbine, crossing the corn fields, when we hear the sound of choppers.

We hit the dirt, hiding in the long corn stalks and we see two BLU search choppers go overhead, side doors opening and them wielding torches and spotlights.

I was soiling myself by that point, as we had changed back into our RED uniforms after Turbine.

A rocket flies up from the hills a mile away and blows up one of the choppers, and a RED Soldier patrol shows up and is able to take one down. The other turns around and flies back towards Turbine, but we know more are coming.

We joined their patrol and headed the rest of the way to 2Fort, and along the way we had some adventures. On Highway 9, we saw 4 BLU jeeps in the distance, so we had to hide under a bridge to escape them. 20 miles out of 2Fort, the BLU's had barricaded off a road, so we had to crawl through storm water access pipes and lastly, the last 20 miles were the worst. RED army gave us support of course, as we met up with a regiment from Gravelpit and ran with them to 2Fort.

I'm going to sleep, I'm tired as hell from the last week.

**October. 1967**

BLU Army arrived here at 2Fort, finally having tracked us from Turbine, 100 miles away. They started inhabiting the base opposite the RED factory, and have given it a paint job. I think they plan to steal the intelligence, but sucks to be them. We moved it last month, to an undisclosed location and we replaced it with a fake intelligence, and fake plans to the Operation.

They apparently stole Intelligence from the Sawmill and are holding it here in 2Fort. I suspect that's a fake too, but I don't say it publicly.

To be honest, these last few months have been horrible on me, but my friends Pierre, Vladimir and Benny have helped me through.

Vladimir finally received his Christmas present, as I was serving in Gravelpit and I couldn't give it to him. It's a pair of boxing gloves, as he has an affinity for boxing. He looks awful, all cut up, and bruised. He was sent to a prison under suspect of being a spy like me. But he was beaten heavily, as he couldn't properly tell them he wasn't a spy.

His english isnt very good, and they kept beating him. He cried to them to stop it, but they couldn't understand. He was in hospital for three months, and came back last month. Well, I'll write more later, I'm on watch now.

**November, 1967**

It's been a stalemate here in 2Fort, and according to RED Control, our mission is considered a success. I'm staying here till January, 1967 and then I'm moving out to protect the Hydro Electric Plant from BLU enroachment.

According to a Medic here, the news for RED has been good so far. We are still in control of the Egyptian Ruins and took back the Hoodoo Mines from the BLUs.

The most startling was the revealing information from the briefcase. Remember how I said I wasn't going to read it?

Yeah well I did, and it shocked me . They detailed plans for a weapon, known as NUCLEUS. Whatever that is. It appears to be some sort of dish, with shimmering blue and purple radiation inside. It looks like it either fires up into the sky or down into the ground, but the drawing is vague. The plans detail it as "A pinnacle of modern science, a device to wreak confusion on the battlefield.

Word around here is that RED army is planning to build this facility not far from Hydro, and I think they might get me to assist in the construction.

**December, 1967**

Christmas, my second year as a soldier under RED Command, and it's only now I see my mistake. I miss my parents, my friends at home and this year hasn't been particularly good. It's been hell, like this war. What are RED and BLU even fighting about? I forgot all about it.

Vladimir, Pierre, Benny and I all exchanged presents for Christmas, and I was surprised with what I got. They all chipped in, and got me a really good presents of an axe covered in barb wire. It looks cool, but I don't know what I'll call it yet.

I got Vladimir a ushanka hat, to keep him warm and to remind of mother Russia. It cheered him up, and he called me "Credit to Team"

For Benny, I bought him a BONK! Energy Drink hat, which holds two cans next to his head, like a beer hat.

And for Pierre, I got him a new balisong knife, as his old one was pretty scrappy and blunt, he appreciated it.

I'm heading off to dinner now, the ceasefire has been good for one day.


	3. 1968 Operation: Team Fortress

**January, 1968**

The war is dying down, but I was shipped out to Hydro on December 29th, to help with the construction of the NUCLEUS facility. There's so many engineers here, using demolition charges to blow out a shaft to construct the facility. An architect, kind of fat in a black suit showed me what it should look like when finished.

The next few months will be pretty boring, just protecting the engineers. My lungs feel kind of scratchy, so I may go see the Medic.

**March, 1968**

I might have lung cancer, according to Klaus, but they need to do more tests on me and find out about my lungs. The facility is coming along well, due to around the clock labour, 8 hours on shift, 8 hours one more and 8 hours another shift. Always working, Saturdays and Sundays off only.

**April, 1968**

The results of my cancer tests are not back yet, but I feel like they already are, as if I already have cancer. If I do, hopefully RED army can patch me up.

The news abroad is good. RED controls 50% of the War Territory and so does BLU, meaning the battle is an even split. We have re-established bases at Gold Rush Hill, Hoodoo Mine and Badwater Basin.

We took over Turbine, and have claimed half the base as ours. We have moved some documents there, just troop movements, and are holding the base closely.

Our other secret battleplans have been moved to new locations. You know of the fake ones at 2Fort, but new plans are at Well, where I used to serve and the ruined Sawmill in the mountains.

I can't talk much now, I have to guard a shipment of steel pylons coming in, to make sure no BLUs attempt to sabotage it.

**May, 1968**

My Beatles record came today, I ordered it from the RED supply depot last month and it's the album Revolver. My favorite song off it so far is Eleanor Rigby, a song about loneliness. How fitting. The Beatles have been around for a while, just can't listen to them too much here, as our record player is broken.

RED Army generals came over today, to check our battlegear and the base was in tip top shape for next month. They gave me a new asbestos suit, which is good. My old suit had rips in it and was looking rather scrappy. They also mounted a "Compression Blast" device to my flame thrower.

Cletus showed off his new Teleporter, by sending his hardhat from one side of the rumpus room to the other. It was fun, but I still don't know if I want to use one. Looks a bit…sketchy.

But now some bad news. While NUCLEUS is complete, the BLUs have caught wind of our secret operation, and moved forces not 5 miles away from here. Hydro is at risk too, with major BLU forces at a watchtower 10 miles away in holding.

Also, starting today, all forces are moving to defend every major battleground. Offblast, 2Fort, Granary, Pipeline all of them will be defended by a RED contingent. The BLUs will do the same, and a rumour is that sometime in June we will declare all out war. Although it has been a "War" it was never officially declared.

It's all just one step closer to all out war.

**June, 1968**

I'm back at Well, this is my designated defense position for the Official War. The BLUs are on the other side, not attacking though. Tomorrow, on June the 21st, everyone is every battleground will attack at once, in what is called **Operation: Team Fortress **

**Operation: Team Fortress** is a 3 part plan, complex but also easy enough for even the most dimwitted heavy to understand.

9-18 troops are stationed at all major theatres of war (2Fort, Well, Watchtower, etc…)

Once every team is in position around the globe, the sirens will sound, signalling the beginning of the operation.

If every team is successful, **Operation: Team Fortress** is complete.

Technology has been advanced for this operation as well, deployed for battle. The new Mark III Supply Dispenser has been delivered to Cletus in blueprint form. This new dispenser will give out more first aid to wounded, ammo and more metal to any engineer who needs it. It also contains an oxygen supply for some reason.

Apparently at the RED Labs in a disclosed location, have also made progress on R.E.S.P.A.W.N technology, whatever that is. I heard some scientists talking about it, saying how death is no longer the last barrier.

Everyone apart from us fighters have been evacuated from the RED facilites to new undisclosed locations. The memory bank rooms, once manned by friendly scientists is now empty. The Control Room used to be full of technicians working to decode enemy intelligence. They have been evacuated. We are alone. I am alone.

Vladimir the Heavy, Pierre the Spy, Benny the Scout, Cletus the Engineer, Horace the Demoman, Bruce the Sniper, Klaus the Medic, all of these people are my friends. They are all here with me at Well, but I need to accept that tomorrow morning, on the 21st, that they might be dead. I might be dead.

I've been diagonised with lung cancer, my friends from before this war are most likely successful. What have I done? Fought for something I don't believe in? And while I have friends here, I'm lonely. I miss my parents, my friends and my life before this war. I only wonder why it took so long for me to realise I was lonely.

The sirens are going off, its about to begin. This is it. Two years of conflict have amounted to this all out war. I might not come back. I'll just stick these lyrics in here.

I'm going now, Mom and dad I love you both. I wish I could kiss you both, and say I miss you, but I can't.

_Ah, look at all the lonely people  
Ah, look at all the lonely people_

Eleanor Rigby picks up the rice in the church where a wedding has been  
Lives in a dream  
Waits at the window, wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door  
Who is it for?

All the lonely people  
Where do they all come from?  
All the lonely people  
Where do they all belong?


End file.
